Mesmerizing leg spin, googly bowler
Batsmen feared LAREEF IDROOS
Friday, September 14, 2018 - 01:00
MOHAMED LAREEF IDROOS was a born match winner. How else would I describe the guy who was my friend but nemesis as well. For starters he joined a rare band of bowlers who had captured all ten wickets. That was against Prince of Wales College playing for STCML. Two hat tricks in SARA' cricket against Bloomfield and Moratuwa and being crowned 'Best All rounder 'SARA' trophy cricketer in 1965. Amazing.
As our careers unwound, we were destined to lead our two schools in 1960.Playing against him he had a match haul of 10 wickets to spin the Thomians to victory at Kotahena under Michael Tissera and the Bens under Neville Casie Chetty in 1958. That outstanding cricket writer of that era Christie Seneviratne who played for Wesley College writing in the ‘DAILY NEWS’ headlined his copy – BENEDICTINES COULD NOT COPE WITH IDROOS’ SPIN – and the Strapline read - THOMIANS FOUND RODRIGOPULLE UNPLAYABLE. Memories are made of these.
And today's 'Sports Legend' MOHAMED LAREEF IDROOS mesmerized most schoolboy batsmen during his glittering school career.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s there were a plethora of leg spin/ googly bowlers who were masters of their chosen field in bowling the most difficult variety that bowling of that art required. Leg spin bowling to reiterate is the most difficult art, unlike an off spinner. Leg spin bowlers are born and not easily made. To master the variety in this art – the leg spin, googly, slider, top spinner and the floater requires many hours of sweat and toil at the nets and could be heart breaking at times.
But once these intricacies are mastered, the leg spin bowler can be a match winner. With a well concealed googly bowled with a leg break action, the spinner can make the best of batsmen look ordinary, not being able to read which way the ball will turn after pitching.
Embarrassing to the gloveman
Unless a sign is made before delivering the googly, it can make even the wicket keeper go the wrong way which could be embarrassing to the gloveman. Once a leg spinner strikes a length and on a wicket that is spin friendly, he can run through any batting line up.
And so here are but few of the spells that the IDROOS cast and I marveled at: 6 for 48 against St. Peter’s College and in which game he bowled the burly Lakshman Serasinghe round his legs. Then against St.Joseph’s College he had a match bag of 10 for 83.
To quote what the master class leg spinner IDROOS has to say in the art of specializing in leg spin bowling: ’Bowling leg breaks is a tough art. Then to bowl googlies, you need to work really hard and practice a lot’.
Keep hitting the coin
Reminds me of the days I was practicing to bowl leg spin. My coaches from under 12 would place a coin at a particular spot on the matting and urge me to keep hitting that coin. It was frustrating and hard going but once mastered and when you get among wickets the joy and ecstasy is immense.
IDROOS after graduating from junior level played for the school by the sea from 1957 to 1960. His captains were the mercurial Michael Tissera ’57 and ’58. Dennis Ferdinands who was then the fastest schoolboy bowler in ’59 and he captained in 1960.
His coaches were L.S.Gauder who was master-in-charge and the year he captained it was that legend F.C. de Saram who was a household name in the 1940s in England and Sri Lanka also captaining the country.
Wealth of knowledge
IDROOS, when he was captain, learnt a lot from Gauder because he had a wealth of knowledge and was a skillful master. IDROOS used to go to his place every Thursday to discuss match tactics.
With apologies for what may seem self-serving, permit this writer to go down memory lane and reminisce, in the years 1958/’59 and ’60 in school cricket.
IDROOS and the writer were tagged' the most successful schoolboy bowlers in this art. In fact in 1958 IDROOS and the writer were vying for the Best Bowler’s prize with me leading at the half way stage. But like in horse racing parlance IDROOS pulled away and richly won the Best Bowler’s award.
In the 1958 inter-school game, and in that era crowds used to fill the ground one hour before play starts at 12 noon. In the Benedictine – Thomian game of 1958 , the writer captured 6 for 45 in the first innings.
Match haul of 10 wickets
IDROOS also took 5 for 43 in the second innings against St.Benedict’s at Mount Lavinia in 1957 which game STCML lost. SBC was led by that amazing all round sportsman and arguably the best Bens sportsman LOVELLY RAYEN who played six sports for his school Cricket, Football, Athletics, hockey, table tennis and basketball. That year the Bens emerged unofficial cricket champs for the first time in their history. The writer as the baby of the team (15 years) was a part of that history.
Harvest of wickets
IDROOS who captured a harvest of wickets in inter-school cricket would regret that he could not get among the wickets in the prestigious Royal-Thomian in the years 1957, ’58 and ’59. But this never-say-die spinner IDROOS broke the hoodoo in the 1960 game. He ran riot and took 5 for 47 and 2 for 54.
IDROOS captured two hat tricks in ‘Sara’ Trophy cricket. On leaving school he played or Moors, SSC and Saracens. He was picked for Sri Lanka on the tour of India under Michael Tissera but failed to play in the unofficial Test which was a travesty of justice where the country scored a historic victory against India led by Mansur Ali Pataudi. Sri Lanka with that win served notice of its prowess in the game.
IDROOS was born in Hultsdorf and moved to Kollupitiya. His father Taufeeque was a keen cricket fan and would be present in every game his son played. On leaving school he entered University to follow medicine. He played for the University from 1961 and the UNI created history being the first side to win the ‘Sara’ trophy in the ‘62/’63 season under Josephian Carlyle Perera.
Missed by a whisker
IDROOS recalls how the UNI missed by a whisker of winning the ‘Sara’ again in the ’63,’64 season. IDROOS once recalled those moments thus: ‘We met Bloomfield in the final. Bloomfield was 8 wickets down and they required another 80 odd runs. I bowled to Norton Fredrick who going for a big slog miscued and Carlyle got under it. But he could not believe as the easy catch was grassed.
‘Then with about 15 minutes to stumps it started to rain and the umpires called off play. The match was drawn and Bloomfield won the ‘Sara’ with a difference of 0.04 points. He recalls that UNI team with glee.
The UNI team- Carlyle Perera (C), Buddy Reid (vc), Lareed Idroos, Mano Ponniah, Nihal Gurusinghe, U.R.P. Gunetilleke, Harsha Samarajeewa, Nanda Senanayake, N.J.S de Mel, K. Wimalaratne, Merril Guneratne, Adiel Anghie, Cyril Ernest, Mohanlal Fernando, Kingsley Fernando and that great wicket keeper from Jaffna V.Sivanandan, cream of schoolboy cricketers of that golden era.
Played in the Gopalan Trophy
IDROOS also played in the Gopalan trophy games and toured Pakistan in ‘63/’65. He played for the Board President’s X1 against Pakistan at the Colombo Oval. He graduated from Medical School in 1967 and two years later left for USA in ’71.
IDROOS continued playing cricket in USA and represented the country along with Cyril Ernest and Balakrishnan in the annual encounter against Canada.
After having a stint in New York he moved to California where he specialized in Nephrology and became a Nephrologist. Such classy players and leaders with sports and academia rolled into one are rare to find these days. Rarer still are gentleman of IDROOS' class.
This was a great read! I can still recall the awe with which I watched Lareef bowl at the Royal Thomian. I was merely a podian boy then and chaps like Lareef were exalted heroes! i had never seen anybody spin a ball so much and he had that unique action. Later on in life, he turned out to be a batch mate along with legends like Harsha Samarajeeva, who I remember as the "fair one" running from almost the sight-screen to deliver his missiles at the hapless batsman. I also recall with a great deal of pleasure my visit to his magnificent house many moons ago, in the company of Rajan "Patas" Ratnesar. Lareef and Nabila are regulars at our Batch gatherings of course. Lareef has achieved a lot in his Profession and as a sportsman and remains the friendly cheerful soul he always was. It is a privilege to be his friend and colleague.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful memory of cricket from the old days masterfully written by Elmo Rodrigopulle, one the finest cricket writers of our generation and himself a fine all rounder. I first saw Lareef bowl on the breezy wicket at Mt Lavinia as a 15 year old when he destroyed Wesley to my utter disappointment. His photo began to appear in the back pages of all the newspapers at weekends. Lareef soon became an icon of school cricket. It was such a pleasure to see him in my batch at medical school. Throughout those years and beyond Lareef remained rather reserved but always kind and friendly. I last saw him with Cyril Ernest at the lobby of Cinnamon Grand in 2012 when we chatted away. We took a photo which I will post as soon as I can get my hands on it. It is so lovely to read about Lareef bringing back those great memories.
ReplyDeleteI remember Lareef very well as a top class leg spinner. During one Royal -Thomian match plated at the Oval in Wanathamulla, Lareef came with an awful reputation having run riot against many other schools and we were rather apprehensive about him; but Michael Dias and Lalith (Nanda's elder brother) Senanayake mastered him and created an excellent partnership.
ReplyDeleteSanath
Thank you Elmo Rodrigopulle for this lovely tribute. That picture on the extreme left, of the 'schoolboy cricketer' Lareef, was one of my first impressions of Lareef, way before we became friends in Medical College. I remember seeing him on the cricket field attacking the batsmen with his legendary 'googlies,' with his white shirt half open, making the schoolgirls swoon! Coming from a Thomian family (which included my mother, who was a teacher at STCML for many years) I knew a lot about his cricket persona at STC. It was a great pleasure to become friends with Lareef, the batch-mate, a few years later. He is such a genuine and unassuming person, in spite of all his cricketing accolades. Because I live on the US east coast, now I only meet him and Nabila in Colombo or at reunions 😔
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